The First Word: Census

On this day – the Census data will be released to the public (probably); the Senate will take up the sonogram bill (probably); a Republican on the SBOE favors redoing controversial history standards; and the latest on the two US ICE agents shot in Mexico.

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*It’s Coming*

The US Census is widely expected to release detailed information about Texas sometime tomorrow afternoon. The big picture is already known, Texas’ population grew so much during the last decade that the state gained another four seats in the US House; only California has a larger Congressional delegation. With the additional data, the Legislature’s committees on redistricting will finally have the information they need to start on the hard work of redrawing the lines.

We’ll post updates throughout the day with reaction and analysis as teams at both the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News pour through the numbers

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*Hit the Reset Button*

Gary Scharrer reports that one Republican on the State Board of Education is in favor of redoing the state’s history standards. The development comes just one day after the conservative Fordham Institute issued a study blasting Texas’ social studies cirrculum:

“My preference is to take the finished product and put it back through the process with the (expert) writing teams,” said State Board of Education member Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant. “Go back through with teachers, experts, businessmen and women and do it right.”

The new Texas curriculum standards represent a hodge-podge of names motivated by partisan politics, the Fordham Institute said in its report.

Civil rights groups protested the new standards, which they claim distort history and shortchange the contributions of minorities.

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*Healthcare Reform Comes to Texas*

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says this plan is nothing like the federal healthcare reform legislation that Democrats passed while Houston Rep. Garnet Coleman says it contains most of the same principles that shaped the federal legislation. Either way the Senate’s proposal would overhaul how the state pays for healthcare; the Chronicle’s Todd Ackermann reports:

Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and Dewhurst said they hadn’t yet determined the savings the bills would generate.

The legislation, much of which is taken from the health care reform law passed by Congress last year, received support Wednesday from key players such as the Texas Hospital Association and Texas Medical Association. Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, also applauded it.

But a Houston health care economist said it remains to be seen whether Texas can pull it off.

“Most health care economists favor this approach, but it seems very ambitious for one state acting alone to try to switch over to such a system in one legislative session,” said Vivian Ho, a Rice University professor. “We just don’t have the research yet to create formulas that prevent hospitals from gaming the system.”

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*One Dead, One Injured; One More Crisis in Mexico*

A deadly ambush targeting two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on a highway in Mexico constitutes an attack on the U.S., top lawmakers said Thursday, as they urged a “heavy handed” response, and the Obama administration hurriedly expanded efforts to help Mexico capture the fugitive gunmen.

The choreographed attack that killed ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata and wounded his partner appeared to be drug cartels’ first direct strike against U.S. law enforcement agents in 26 years. In 1985, operatives kidnapped, tortured and killed DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in a bid to extract data about U.S. operations.

“This attack was not a case of mistaken identity,” said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security briefed by the ICE leadership. “The attackers knew who they were going after. This is a game changer. The cartels are willing to take on the United States.”

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*The Sked*

– The House Budget Subcommittees meet again at 7a.m.

– The Senate State Affairs Committee meets at 8 a.m. to consider resolutions endorsing an amendment to the US Constitution that would require a balanced budget